GITA IN CONTEXT OF THE MAHABHARAT

In ancient times there was a king Shantanu who had very capable and brave son Devavrata Bheeshma who was the greatest warrior and nobody ever dare to challenge him. Bheesma’s mother left in his early childhood. He took oath not to become king and also not to marry to facilitate his father to marry again with Satyvati who put the condition that only her son should become king of Hastinapur. He assured to his step mother to facilitate by remaining loyal to Hastinapur and help her sons and grand-sons to rule. Before marriage, Satyavati was having a son Krishna Dvaipayan, popularly known as Rishi Veda Vyasa. Shantanu and Satyavati had two sons – Chitrangada and Vichitraviryan. Bhishma loved and adored his two brothers and in turn the two of them worshiped the ground on which Bhishma walked. But both of them died early. She had two grand-sons, Dhritaraashtra and Paandu. The former was born blind, therefore, Paandu inherited the kingdom. Paandu had five sons. They were called the Paandavs. Dhritaraashtra had one hundred sons. They were called the Kauravs. Duryodhana was the eldest of the Kauravs.

After the death of king Paandu the Paandavs became the lawful king. Since they were still in their childhood. Dhritaraashtra was made king and Bheesma was taking care five sons of Pandu and 100 sons Dhritarashtra. Also he took responsibility of protecting the kingdom as a supreme commander of the army.. Duryodhana was a very jealous person. He also wanted the kingdom. The kingdom was divided into two halves between the Paandavs and the Kauravs . Duryodhana was not satisfied with his share of the kingdom. He wanted the entire kingdom for himself. He unsuccessfully planned several foul plays to kill the Paandavs and take away their kingdom. He even ordered to disrobe Pandavas wife Queen Draupadi in front of King’s court. He unlawfully took possession of the entire kingdom of the Paandavs.

He refused to give back even five villages without a war. All mediation by Lord Krishna and others failed. The big war of Mahaabhaarata was thus inevitable. The Paandavs had only two choices: Fight for their right as a matter of duty or run away from war and accept defeat in the name of peace and nonviolence. Arjuna, one of the five Paandava brothers, faced the dilemma in the battlefield whether to fight or run away from war for the sake of peace. Arjuna’s dilemma was the biggest of all. He had to make a choice between fighting the war and killing his most revered guru, very dear friends, close relatives, and many innocent warriors or running away from the battlefield for the sake of preserving the peace and nonviolence.

krishna-arjuna

Arjuna’s dilemma is, in reality, the universal dilemma. Every human being faces dilemmas, big and small, in their everyday life when performing their duties.
Lord Krishna spoke the Bhagvad geeta to Arjuna at the battle of Kuruksetra near New Delhi, India in 3137 B.C. near New Delhi, India in 3137 B.C.
The entire seven hundred verses of the Gita is a discourse between Lord Krishna and the confused Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. This discourse was narrated to the blind king, Dhritaraashtra, by his charioteer, Sanjaya, as an eyewitness war report.
Bhagvad gita is the part of the great epic MAHABHARATA written by VedaVyasa.

In order to achieve success in life, one must be aware of the purpose of his own life, supreme reality, and its relation with the life. Lord Krishna explained the same in Gita. The Gita can, therefore, be divided into three parts of six chapters each on the basis of the topics covered;

Purpose of life
Supreme Reality
Relation between Individual and Supreme Reality

1. PURPOSE OF LIFE

First part talks about the human being as an individual. All the human being meet challenges and are overwhelmed by them. Everybody needs to understand the purpose of life and conduct accordingly . It is karma yoga, path of action. Karma yoga is working for a higher cause in the spirit of cooperative endeavour.To involve in social service and carry out the good work without expecting any reward for it. When a person functions thus his worldly desires wane away and he is prepared for meditation. Through meditation he realises his Self, the purpose of existence. This is the surest way for salvation.

2. SUPREME REALITY

Krishna shows how Reality or God is in everything and everything is in God. He demonstrates this both by analyses and syntheses. He names individual things and says they are God and then puts it all together, synthesises them in the form of Vishwarupa, His cosmic form. In it, Arjuna sees how everything is part of Krishna or Reality , the good, the bad and the ugly . Whatever one sees is a manifestation of the Lord. With this vision one’s mind expands in love.

3. RELATION BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND SUPREME REALITY

Supreme Reality is the root and the world is the tree, the inverted ashvatha tree. Like any family tree, the parent is shown on top and the descendants below. The world is made up of the three gunas tamas, ignorance; rajas, activity; and sattva, poise. They bind us in different ways and keep us from recognition of Reality .Beings in the world are all different but different combinations of the three gunas. When one goes beyond the gunas one finds one’s true Self.

Thus, Lord Krishna explained in The Gita that everybody is assigned a certain role in life. May that role be performed to the best of one’s ability, not only for a personal gain but for the well-being of the macrocosm. All duties and actions that one has to perform may be looked upon as an opportunity to serve the universe. By the spirit of offering, of contributing, the individual has struck chord of harmony playing in the fine chord of harmony playing in the universe. The spirit of offering, the attitude of serving or reaching out is such a catalyst that it purifies his heart of selfishness, greed, aggression, violence, usurpation and other such self-centred tendencies and makes it pure and divine. Purged of these discordant tendencies, he is free from anxieties and conflicts. In a nutshell, selfishness is equal to unhappiness and selflessness and reaching out is equal to happiness and peace.